THE GLEANER, MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2022 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS A3 AinsworthMorris/Staff Reporter DURINGTHE returnof full face-to-face classes today, Tracey Ann Holloway Richards will not be surprised if 100 fewer students than the number originally enrolledwill turn up atMaxfield Park Primary School in Kingston. On Jamaica Day, which was nationally celebrated on February 25, Holloway Richards, the principal, and colleague educators urged students to appear for an all-day concert in recognitionof theannual cultural event. That entreaty was expected to be a litmus test to inform projections of a full engagement in in-person learning following the midterm break in March. The principal reported that 106 students weremissing that day. At midday, which was the climax of the concert, around 397 students had reported for school, which formally started at 8 a.m. The coronavirus pandemic has hadapunishingeffect on education in Jamaica, with schools shuttered for the majority of the 24 months since the disease was designatedapandemic.Theupshot of the crisis hasbeen falling learning outcomes, exacerbated by the reliance on computers and Internet connectivity, which left tens of thousands of students in limbo. Holloway Richards said that Maxfield Park Primary’s pre-pandemic population stood at 503 students. Since then, 397 have returned for face-to-face classes, representing 79 per cent of the original number. Of the absent 106, eight were students preparing for the upcoming Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations. Holloway Richards said that Maxfield Park administrators theorise that someof theabsent students have either relocated or their parents simply cannot afford the financial cost of sending themto face-to-face classes. “Parents are without jobs for different reasons; some parents are not able to find the money. Some of the parents cannot find the ... lunch money to send them back to school,”she said in a Gleaner interview. “”I’m hoping to God that by the end of April, we will be able get back at least 80 per cent of those students,” Holloway Richards said of the absentees. The school has tried making contact with some parents throughcalls orWhatsAppmessages, butmany of thoseattemptshavebeen fruitlessbecauseof changed phone numbers and other challenges. Holloway Richards said since the recent phased reopening of face-to-face classes at her school, she has had tobe reregistering childrenmore thanhalfway into the academic year. 21% of students missing from Maxfield Christopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer KADIE-ANN WITTER Domville remembers well the eager anticipation that would seize her when her dad, WinstonWitter, was coming to visit at her maternal grandparents’home in Ocho Rios, St Ann. Invariably, she would fall asleep before he arrived, only to be awakened by the sound of his voice as he sat on the bed beside her and engaged in discussion with her grandfather. Then she would open her eyes and grab his attention. “Daddy, you reach?”she said she would ask, eliciting the routine assurance fromhim: “Yes, remember, I told you I was coming.” Witter, an academic, columnist, and talk-show host, died of cirrhosis at the University Hospital of theWest Indies on February 16. He was 64. One of the lasting lessons from Kadie-AnnWitter’s childhood was, she said, that he was a “man of his word”. Witter Domville, his only child, was one of several persons who visited Perry’s Funeral Chapel in Spanish Town, St Catherine, on Saturday to pay their final respects as the body lay in repose. The grieving daughter recalled that her father was always a stickler for rules and did not tolerate indiscipline. “He was always there to correct you, and I am very appreciative of the correction because they have made me into who I am today,”Witter Domville, who works in the banking industry, said. “I am very disciplined, and that is due to his influence as well as that of my grandparents who raised me. His impact, however, extends well beyond me to the entire Jamaica.” Norman Witter, her uncle and Winston’s younger brother by two years, arrived fromNewYork on Friday, where he saidmedia houses had been paying tribute to the late talk-show host who once ruled daytime radio with his programme on KLAS FM. Norman told of the special bond they shared as the closest of siblings among nine brothers and seven sisters. Following the 1998 crash in which Winston, who was a pillion rider on a motorbike, sustained head and other injuries after being struck by a car, the journalist spent a six-month convalescence at Norman’s home in the United States. “He was a pacesetter, and the void he left will not be so easily filled. My brother will be remembered as a person who always advocated for the less fortunate, and in particular, poor people, to whom he gave a voice,” said Norman. Witter Domville is particularly grateful for the quality time her six-year-old daughter was able to spend with her grandfather and the many memories she will also have of a man whose gift of gab endeared him to many Jamaicans. The funeral will take place at the University Chapel in Mona, starting at 11 a.m., and will be preceded by a wake on Tuesday at the Louise Bennett Garden Centre from 6:30 p.m. t0 10 p.m. christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com Daddy’s girl has fond memories of Winston Witter Long-time friend of the family, Courtney Waul, signs the condolence book during a private viewing of the late Winston ‘Babatunde’ Witter at Perry’s Funeral Home in Spanish Town, St Catherine, on Saturday. Witter will be laid to rest on Wednesday. KENYON HEMANS/PHOTOGRAPHER Dr Curtis Watson, renowned bass baritone and opera and concert singer, conducting the Brandenburg Singers at the Grace Reformed Baptist Church during an event in his honour at the Red Hills Road, St Andrew, church on Sunday. RUDOLPH BROWN/PHOTOGRAPHER GIFTS CONTINUED FROM A1 was such a blessing. Having a child changes a person’s life,” she said, adding that Xavier’s death has been equally devastating for his father. “Amadalone leave for himtomad ‘causehimtalk every day about him ‘one boy’ this and that,”she said. Xavier’s death compoundedgrief for Berry, who lost her mother as a newborn and her father some six months before her son’s passing. Her 80-year-old father, Clifton Berry, wasmurdered inFebruary last year. Hishousewas also firebombed. She said she was broken. “I don’t really know much about my mother because when she died, I was just days old, but my father was a very well-mannered and respectable man ... . Him nuh trouble people and himno deserve to die like that either, but my son was only eight years old ... . He’s so innocent,”Berry insisted. Amid the grief of losing her only child, she lauded her family and friends for being her anchor. Berry said she is yet to hear from the police on the status of the investigation into her son’s murder. “Mi just a continuebawl andpray to God ‘cause Father God nah mek my eye water waste or go in vain,” she said. Deputy Superintendent AntonGur Cardoza, Clarendon’s divisional operations chief, told The Gleaner that no arrests have been made in relation to the case. Investigations are ongoing. olivia.brown@gleanerjm.com A proud father Winston Witter shares a special moment with his only child, Kadie-Ann Witter Domville, on her wedding day in this undated photograph. CONTRIBUTED Olivia Brown/Gleaner Writer WITHTHE full resumption of face-to-face classes today, some schools are still being handicapped by furniture shortage. Violet ThomasThompson, president of the Primary and Infant School Principals Association disclosed that the challenge has persisted, with institutions opting to dispose of dual-seat benches amid socialdistancing protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s not even to facilitate the single seating alone. It was alsobecauseof termites, so those schools who would have gotten rid of their dual seats, they need furniture,”she said in a Gleaner interview on Sunday. Thomas-Thompson is, however, anticipating an early resolution to that concern, noting that the educationministryhas indicated that furnituredeliverieswereunderway. The principals association head said, too, that space issues could emergeat several schoolswith rising student populations. This, she said, couldhavearisen fromthe relocation of families because of economic fallout associatedwith thepandemic. “Some persons would be out of jobs, so they migrated to different parishes, so thesechildrenhave tobe facilitatedat other schools,”she said. AvalynHenry, principal ofOsborne Store Primary and Junior High School, said that colleague teachers andadministrators have expressed concerns about space. She said, however, that the discontinuation of the junior high cohort has alleviated those challenges at Osborne Store. There are “mixed” emotions about the full resumption of in-person classes, said Henry. The principal said that staff are enthused about re-engaging all students on the compound but acknowledged that health concerns linger. “The whole fear with the pandemic is one issue. When [the students] come off the taxis, many of them have theirmasks in their hands or in their pockets,”she said. Henry said plans are in place to facilitate students who are not able to return physically because of illness. She lauded the school’s homeworkprogramme for bridging the learning gap. With320 students enrolled, Henry said that administering temperature checks could be tedious. Recess times will also pose a challenge, causing more logistical headaches for administrators in the rotational movement of grades. “Withall these childrencoming in, human resource is a problem here because youhave tohavepersons at thegatedoing temperature checks, and that’s for all persons coming in,” she told The Gleaner. “... Now that we will have everybody, it’s going to be harder because children are really social beings andmanyof themarehappy to be at school.” All is ready to go for the team at Beulah All-Age School in New Longville, Clarendon. Principal Nadine Gayle-Little told The Gleaner on Sunday that staff have planned to roll out a grand welcome celebration for students and teachers. Gayle-Little said that while the school anticipates old furniture to be replaced, they aremaking use of the current stock. “We had our furniture in storage, butwhenwepulled themout, none of them was infested with termites or had rusted to thepointwherewe could not clean them up and reuse them,”she said. Schools with established shift systems have an additional two weeks to streamline their operations to facilitate the full resumption of face-to-face classes, Dr KasanTroupe, acting chief education officer in the Ministryof EducationandYouth, has said. Primary schools gear up for full face-to-face HENRY THOMASTHOMPSON Friday, March 4, 2022 7 10 21 28 33 6 $307,000,000 No Winner No Winner No Winner No Winner No Winner No Winner 16 Winners 11 Winners 44 Winners 38 Winners 379 Winners 331 Winners 399 Winners 1,421 Winners 1,162 Winners 318 Winners
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